Podcasts about Andrew Tobias

In this episode we answer emails from James, MyContactInfo and Cy.  We discuss using silver in addition to gold in a portfolio, review again why many "options strategy funds" and other complex ETFs are generally a waste of space in a portfolio and talk about a recent Andrew Tobias interview and the history of DIY investing.Links:Eric Balchunas Interview:  Eric Balchunas on The Hidden Gems of the ETF World You Need to Know! (youtube.com)Andrew Tobias Interview:  The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need with Andrew Tobias | White Coat InvestorAmusing AI-Bot Summary:Discover why silver might be the wild card you didn't expect in your investment portfolio. With its industrial uses and lack of central bank holdings, silver might ramp up your portfolio's volatility without offering much in terms of diversification. We explore the intriguing story of the Hunt brothers and their infamous attempt to corner the silver market in the late 1970s, shedding light on the lessons learned from this historical market manipulation. Managed futures, we argue, could be a more strategic play for those looking to ride silver's unpredictable trends.As we journey through the evolution of DIY investing, we take a critical look at the rise and fall of heavily marketed investment funds, like buy-write and options strategy funds. Through the wisdom of Andrew Tobias, we trace the shift from active fund management in the 1980s to today's preference for indexing and strategic asset allocation. From the so-called "Bronze Age" to our current "Golden Age" of investing, the importance of asset allocation remains a steadfast guide. So whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting out, these reflections aim to illuminate a path toward more informed and successful investment decisions.Support the show

This episode we interview Andrew Tobias, the author of The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, which has sold over a million copies and was influential in our financial education. We discuss financial plans, changes in the financial world during his career, crypto, venture investing, meme stocks, inflation, and high earners' financial mistakes. See full show notes here https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/the-only-investment-guide-youll-ever-need-with-andrew-tobias  Today's episode is brought to you by SoFi, helping medical professionals like us bank, borrow, and invest to achieve financial wellness. SoFi offers up to 4.6% APY on their savings accounts, as well as an investment platform, financial planning, and student loan refinancing…featuring an exclusive rate discount for med professionals and $100/month payments for residents. Check out all that SoFi offers at https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/Sofi *Loans originated by SoFi Bank, N.A., NMLS 696891. Advisory services by SoFi Wealth LLC. The brokerage product is offered by SoFi Securities LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investing comes with risk including risk of loss. Additional terms and conditions may apply. The White Coat Investor has been helping doctors with their money since 2011. Our free financial planning resource covers a variety of topics from doctor mortgage loans and refinancing medical school loans to physician disability insurance and malpractice insurance. Learn about loan refinancing or consolidation, explore new investment strategies, and discover loan programs specifically aimed at helping doctors. If you're a high-income professional and ready to get a "fair shake" on Wall Street, The White Coat Investor is for you! Main Website: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com  YouTube: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/youtube  Student Loan Advice: https://studentloanadvice.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewhitecoatinvestor  Twitter: https://twitter.com/WCInvestor  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewhitecoatinvestor  Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/whitecoatinvestor  Online Courses: https://whitecoatinvestor.teachable.com  Newsletter: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/free-monthly-newsletter 

Mediaite editor Aidan McLaughlin speaks with Ari Melber, host of "The Beat" on MSNBC and the network's chief legal correspondent. They discuss this week's presidential debate on ABC, between Vice President Harris and former President Trump, Trump's bogus election fraud claims, and the future of cable news. McLaughlin also speaks with Andrew Tobias, chief political correspondent for cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer, about the Trump-promoted conspiracy theories roiling Ohio. This episode was produced by Brandon Reschke and Kathryn Wilkens.

To get a handle on how this is playing out in Ohio, we talked to four veteran political observers: progressive activist Morgan Harper, Republican strategist Terry Casey, Ohio Public Radio reporter Jo Ingles and Cleveland.com reporter Andrew Tobias.

Bill-Mike Got Your Wednesday Up and Running With Cavs VS Heat Tonight Preview-Ballys Serena Winters - Bernie Moreno Wins GOP Senate Nomination VS Sen Sheron Brown In November-Cleveland.com Andrew Tobias - Vending Machines...People Are Making A Lot Of Extra Money - Gregg Stebben - Akron VS Creighton Preview-Akron PBP Dave Skozen - Former President Trump is running out of time and options to fund his 460-million-dollar bond payment. What will happen if he cannot raise the money?-NBC Radio Rory O'Neill - NBC Radio Erin Real-look at the cities where a 100-thousand-dollar salary goes the furthest. Are you on the list?

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Bill & Mike Got Your Money Monday Cashed In With Cavs Mitchell & Garland Beat LeBron's Lakers 114-100-Cavs Alcorn-Chones Recapped The Win - Browns VS Dopljins Preview From Orange & Brown Report Fred Greetham - Powerball Reaches $1.9 Billion - Will Be $2 Billion By Tonight's Drawing-NBC Radio Rory O'Neill - Pre Election Day Preview From Cleveland.com Andrew Tobias & ABC News Steve Roberts - Money Monday From Melanie Ross-Sequoia Financial Group On Election Day-Congress-Stock Market - Jordan Goodman-Money Answers.com On Health Care Costs

Cleveland.com Andrew Tobias spoke to Bill Wills about the latest in the 2022 Ohio Mid Term Voting

The queens discuss breaking open the closet doors through the work of Paul Monette.Please consider supporting the poets we mention in today's show! If you need a good indie bookstore, we recommend Loyalty Bookstores, a DC-area Black-owned bookshop. Paul Monette (October 16, 1945--February 10, 1995)  was the author of at least 4 novels: Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll (1978), The Gold Diggers (1979), Afterlife (1990), and Halfway Home (1991). He also wrote Sanctuary, a fable, which was illustrated by Vivienne Flesher and published posthumously in 1997. His first nonfiction book, Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir (1988) received a National Book Critic's Circle Award nomination and won a Lambda Literary Award. His second memoir is Becoming a Man; his third book of nonfiction is Last Watch of the Night, published in 1994. His books of poems are The Carpenter at the Asylum, in 1975; No Witness (1981), and Love Alone: Eighteen Elegies for Rog (1988). His New and Selected Poems is called West of Yesterday, East of Summer (1994). He died of complications due to aids on February 10, 1995. Watch Monette's iconic 1994 appearance on the Charlie Rose show here (~20 minutes). Watch this terrific wide-ranging interview with Paul Monette conducted in September 1993 by Sheila James Kuehl (1 hour).  You can see the poet Philip Clark, co-editor of Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS, read Monette's poem "Your Sightless Days” here. (~5 mins).  Recorded live at Bloombars in Washington D.C., June 8, 2011.The anthology that Aaron references is titled Poets for Life: Seventy-Six Poets Respond to AIDS. Aaron is right: Monette has 6 poems in that anthology, which was edited by Michael Klein.The Best Little Boy in the World was published in 1973 under the pseudonym John Reid. The book was re-released in 1998 alongside its sequel, The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up, under the author's real name, Andrew Tobias. Read an essay entitled “Paul Monette's AIDS Poetry” at the Yale Review. 

Bill & Mike Got Your Tech Tuesday Connected With Guardians VS Yanks-ALDS GM1 Preview From Guards PBP Jim Rosenhaus - Browns VS Pats From Cleveland.com Terry Pluto - Ryan-Vance Debate Recap From Cleveland.Com Andrew Tobias - Oh Sec Of State LaRose On Voter Registration Deadline - Strongsville Mayor Persiack On Business Expo - John Rich Show Concert Ticket Info From John Vrsansky - What are the safest cities in America – and how does your town stack up?-NBC Radio Rory O'Neill - Retailers are expected to offer massive online discounts just in time for the holidays-NBC Radio Erin Real

Recently, Ohio was assumed to be a Republican state. Just a few years before that, it was the consummate swing state. Now, Democrat Tim Ryan is making it feel like a Blue State again as he leaves Republican JD Vance behind in fundraising and polling numbers. Is this real? Or just a momentary blip? Andrew Tobias, Chief Political Reporter at The Cleveland Plain Dealer joins to separate fact and fiction, and make some bold predictions about Ohio's political future.

This episode we interview Andrew Tobias, the author of The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, which has sold over a million copies and was influential in our financial education. We discuss financial plans, changes in the financial world during his career, crypto, venture investing, meme stocks, inflation, and high earners' financial mistakes. See full show notes here https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/the-only-investment-guide-youll-ever-need-with-andrew-tobias  A lot of physicians have questions about locum tenens, and https://locumstory.com is the place for them to get real, unbiased answers to those questions, basic questions like, “What is locum tenens?” to more complex questions about pay ranges, taxes, various specialties, and how locum tenens works. And then there's the big question: is it right for you? Go to https://locumstory.com and get the answers. The White Coat Investor has been helping doctors with their money since 2011. Our free financial planning resource covers a variety of topics from doctor mortgage loans and refinancing medical school loans to physician disability insurance and malpractice insurance. Learn about loan refinancing or consolidation, explore new investment strategies, and discover loan programs for specifically aimed at helping doctors. If you're a high-income professional and ready to get a "fair shake" on Wall Street, The White Coat Investor channel is for you! Main Website: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com  YouTube: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/youtube  Student Loan Advice: https://studentloanadvice.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewhitecoatinvestor  Twitter: https://twitter.com/WCInvestor  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewhitecoatinvestor  Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/whitecoatinvestor  Online Courses: https://whitecoatinvestor.teachable.com  Newsletter: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/free-monthly-newsletter 

Bill & Mike Got Your Wednesday Jumping With Dewine VS Whaley For GOV & J.D. Vance VS Ryan For U.S. Senate - Rob Walgate & Andrew Tobias Recapped The Election - Guards VS Padres Double Header Preview From Tom Hamilton - Rock Hall Nominees Announced From Rock Hall CEO Greg Harris - Coach Sam's Scholars Cleveland Legends Event 5-17-22-Kerry Rutigliano-Coach Sam's Scholars Executive Director, Ori Akrish - Business Insider Gregg Stebben Live From Warsaw-Poland - Talking How he befriended a former member of the Russian Parliament

In todays episode, Matthew explains basic finance, including investing, and how to make your money work for you. First suggestion: 1. Start young or as soon as you can! 2. Put money aside for taxes if they aren't deducted from your paycheck. 3. Have a budget and track everything.  4. Stop renting and start planning to buy so you can get out of the rental treadmill that isn't going anywhere. 5. Put your finances in order. 6. Have goals. Attainable goals. 7. If you do have a down payment for a home, but not enough for a full cash purchase, get your mortgage commitment and appraisal done quickly, especially on the offer. 8. Know your credit and work on it.  9. Ask questions! Read and here's some suggested reading.   Suggested Reading The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias

Cavs VS Pistons Preview From Bally's Sports Ohio's Serena Winters - CSU Head Coach Dennis Gates Talks Hoops & Tourney - NBC News Radio Rory O'Neill had the latest on the situation in Ukraine - Cleveland.com Andrew Tobias talked about his Article on Redistricting Map in Ohio - Business Insider Gregg Stebben talked to Bill about How the city of Des Moines chills entrepreneurship in 66 steps - America doesn't have enough homes for all the people who want to buy them. So, the construction sector is getting busy — or at least trying to. What does this do for single biggest driver of consumer price inflation and how will this affect jobs during a time when there are supply chain issues?-NBC News Radio Michael Bower

Jonathan Freedland speaks to local Ohioan politics reporter, Andrew Tobias, about why the Senate and gubernatorial midterm races are shaping up to be a litmus test for the influence of Trumpism in Republican success. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod

Andy Tobias' journey from being the "Best Little Boy in the World" (the title of the best-selling coming out memoir he authored under a pseudonym while still in grad school in 1972) to serving as the first openly-gay Treasurer of the Democratic Party from 1999-2016 is a fascinating one. Growing up in a suburban Jewish household where he was taught that helping others was imperative, Andy has dedicated his life to political and charitable causes. He and Mike Balaban have known each other for more than 40 years. In this interview they discuss their lives, and shared values while pursuing paths of political and social activism.

Joe narrates a show reviewing some of the best interviews of 2020. Highlights of interviews with Dr. Helen Caldicott, Diane D'Arrigo, Lois Gibbs, Andrew Tobias, John Witte, and Ricklef Beutin, and more!

Andrew Tobias from Cleveland.com is our guest to discuss how Energy Harbor is doing $800 million in stock buybacks after getting $1 billion added to our electric bills by the Ohio state government with HB6. Joe DeMare and Rebecca Wood discuss wearing Covid masks, blue bees, Monsanto gets its butt kicked in court, and much more!!

Episode Notes Outrage is the theme of the day for the latest episode of This Week in the CLE, with the reporting and editing team here at cleveland.com chewing on no end of stories that had our jaws dropping over the past week. This Week in the CLE is published most Thursdays on your favorite podcasting platforms. Subscribe to make sure you never miss an episode. We begin with some scorn for a proposal backed by Attorney General Dave Yost to deprive local governments of their right to seek damages in court when they are wronged. Cuyahoga County, for example, has sued opioid makers to recover all the foster care and other costs the county has borne because of the drug crisis. Yost wants to take whatever money Cuyahoga has coming and have the state decide how to spend it. Politics Editor Jane Kahoun lays out the facts in a discussion with me and co-host Laura Johnston. What else is sparking outrage? How about a commercial making the rounds to scare Ohioans into thinking they are under assault from China? It’s an effort to persuade people not to sign a petition to allow Ohio voters to reject a sweet deal that legislators gave First Energy Solutions. The deal forces taxpayers to bail out the utility’s aging nuclear plants. Next on the list is a story Statehouse reporter Andrew Tobias wrote about a pro-gun group making waves because it thinks Ohio’s existing pro-gun groups are too tame. Jane has the lowdown on who is behind the group and whether its priority is gun rights or raising money. We also talk about another gun story, the creation of a “Do Something” website by Ohio Democrats. We talk with Jane about whether the Democrats have tapped into something that will resonate with their base. And we discuss a new proposal by the governor, thwarted thus far in his push for universal background checks, to unilaterally create a statewide database of warrants to be used for background checks. Another story out of Columbus: the efforts of phone companies to block robocalls. And we close the conversation with Jane with a mildly salacious divorce filing by the wife of an Ohio Supreme Court justice and son of the governor. From Columbus outrage, we move to Cleveland outrage, in a conversation Laura and I have with City Hall reporter Bob Higgs. Cleveland just learned of a little-known commission that might let the developer of a $175 million city project avoid paying any property taxes for 30 years. Cleveland city and school officials are furious. Bob also takes us through an auditor’s findings that a bunch of Cleveland City Council members have been failing to properly document their expenses. Council President Kevin Kelley, among the offenders, vows reforms. We ask Bob just how the council members could be getting things so wrong long after Council Member Ken Johnson’s expense reports became a big source of controversy. Bob also details the latest chapter in Cleveland’s electric scooter story, with the scooters finally having arrived. We get back to the outrage stories in. a discussion with courts reporter Cory Shaffer and crime reporter Adam Ferrise, who has details on a new indictment about a drug ring in the county jail. The indictment says a bunch of guards, working closely with a violent street gang, were operating the ring. Adam also talks about a guard, already charged with criminal abuse of an inmate, who now stands charged with trying to extort fellow guards into giving false testimony for him. Misbehaving guards are an offshoot of a bigger jail story, the inhumane conditions and constant lockdowns of inmates. Adam explains how he found out that dozens of inmates, having had enough of lockdowns, staged a protest inside the jail recently. Cory has the story about some other people who are fed up with what they see as ineffective law enforcement. He explains how some East Cleveland residents have taken steps to haul a number of city police officers... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode Notes Is the move to purge inactive voters in Ohio a worthy effort to keep the voter rolls straight or a botched job that should be halted? We start the latest episode of This Week in the CLE by looking at Frank LaRose’s at once enlightened and seriously flawed effort. This Week in the CLE is a podcast discussion and analysis of the latest news by the people who bring it to you, the reporters and editors at cleveland.com. We try something different this week, by focusing on just one or two reporters per segment, for a deeper dive into the news stories they covered. Statehouse reporter Andrew Tobias stands in for the first segment, talking about the voter purge as well as a proposal to streamline voter registration, at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Special Projects Manager Laura Johnston and I also talk with Andrew about a proposal to use fentanyl seized by police as the drug for Ohio executions, an idea with no traction, mainly because it is illegal. And we talk about a growing sentiment that all of the controversy around capital punishment in Ohio might make it obsolete. Andrew also helps us understand why Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder appears ready to block Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposals for keeping guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. In a piece of what could be good news, we talk with Andrew about Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague’s ResultsOHIO program, which builds in some innovative safeguards for taxpayers before the state pays for experimental programs, like one in Northeast Ohio aimed at reducing the chances that people leaving prison will commit new crimes. In our second segment, Laura and I talk with court reporters Eric Heisig and Cory Shaffer about breaking news and some thoughtful reporting they have published of late. Cory takes us through a discussion about former Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Lance Mason, who murdered his wife, and Eric explains the ramifications of a settlement by a couple of opioid makers in a huge set of lawsuits filed in Northeast Ohio. We talk with Cory about his recent story about a Cuyahoga County judge who is costing taxpayers a lot of money because he is moving his docket along much more slowly than other judges. Cory also discusses his story about a recent sentencing in the courtroom of Judge Daniel Gaul, who was featured prominently in the Serial podcast about Cuyahoga County. Eric has written a bunch of stories about people accused of plotting terror in Ohio and discusses the difficult decisions that federal investigators face when trying to determine the line where free speech ends and criminality begins. He wrote a story on the topic after sitting down to chat with U.S.Attorney Justin Herdman. A lawsuit filed in federal court by a Cleveland police officer feeds another discussion with Eric. The officer claims Cleveland is compelling police who work extra hours to take comp time instead over overtime pay. Cory explains how the chief judge in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court is considering a run for the Ohio Supreme Court, as is former Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. And Cory closes the segment with his take on the guilty plea of the former Cuyahoga County jail warden and his promise to cooperate with criminal investigations there. Reporter Mary Kilpatrick and Public Interest and Advocacy manager Mark Vosburgh join me and Laura to talk about how the next seven months likely will determine Cleveland’s prosperity over the coming decades. I wrote a column about the topic, and Ray Leach, CEO of JumpStart, visited us this week to share why he feels optimistic. The conversations about Cleveland prosperity involve a lot of thought about poverty, and Cleveland City Hall reporter Bob Higgs rings in with a recent proposal from City Council President Kevin Kelley to provide attorneys to parents in poverty who are facing eviction. And we wrap up the podcast with Troy... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode Notes The Ohio Legislature passed a budget bill that would have made the wealthy residents of Hunting Valley even wealthier if Gov. Mike DeWine did not block it, which is where we start the discussion on the latest episode of This Week in the CLE, the podcast discussion of the news by cleveland.com reporters and editors. With Northeast Ohio’s Matt Dolan leading the way in the senate, the Legislature – secretly and with no discussion – answered the call of lobbyists with a budget bill that would have capped taxes for Hunting Valley. Politics editor Jane Kahoun leads the discussion on this move, detailed by Statehouse reporter Andrew Tobias. Jane also takes us through the Trump Administration’s plan to take food stamps away from 3 million Americans, including people in Northeast Ohio who rely on the assistance to feed their families. Jane’s perspective highlights the contrast between the effort by Ohio legislators to help the rich while Washington seeks to make life more difficult for the poor. Courtney Astolfi rings in with how an invigorated Cuyahoga County Council has issued its first-ever subpoena, to Sheriff Cliff Pinkney. They want him to talk about deplorable conditions in the jail he oversees after he refused to answer questions at a recent hearing. She also explains how the council wants to strengthen the position of sheriff as a remedy to the jail situation. Federal courts reporter Eric Heisig talks about why advocates for immigrants in Northeast Ohio are on high alert of late and how they are protesting the recent detaining of people who are in the country legally. The presidential election is more than a year away, so polls don’t have much meaning yet, but Jane explains why we should take note of a poll showing former Vice President Joe Biden with a commanding lead in Ohio over Trump. Courtney gives us a primer on how not to blow it on a $300,000 contract, which Cuyahoga County government did involving computer servers. Eric has the details on why Bedford has stopped enforcing a nuisance law that critics say is unfair and is used to target African Americans. Jane give us the lowdown FirstEnergy Solution’s long-sought victory in its battle to force Ohio ratepayers to bail out its expensive and failing nuclear power plants. Eric discusses what he has learned from a massive database involving opioids and how certain pharmacies were distributing amounts of addictive e drugs that are beyond comprehension. Reporter Mary Kilpatrick and rockthelake.com coordinator Laura Johnston try to make sense of the Trump Administration’s plan to spend $2 million cleaning up trash in the Great Lakes. The idea is a great one, but the money is no where near what is needed. Jane talks about when Ohio voters might get to compel the state to conduct background checks on anyone seeking to buy a gun. Akron reporter Robin Goist makes her first podcast appearance to talk about plans for an Amazon warehouse on the site of the former Rolling Acres mall, and the panel ponders whether elected leaders might have been better off seeking an employer with highly educated workers. Criminal justice editor Kris Wernowsky explains why the new head of the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center quit after just five hours on the job and the mind-stretching letter that the chief judge wrote to her colleagues to announce the departure. Reporter Evan MacDonald discusses the acquittal of a Cleveland police supervisor charged in the infamous case of the 137 shots fired at a couple who were chased throughout the city after their car backfired and officers misinterpreted the sound as gunshots. Robin explains why Akron employees can go to college for free because the city gave some land to Stark State College. Editor Kristen Davis and reporter Yadi Rodriguez explain what goes into the ratings of 147 pasta... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On Sunday, June 2, 2019, Driving Forces cohost Jeff Simmons led WBAI's special coverage, Pride, Progress, and Politics: 50 Years Since Stonewall. Guests during the third hour of the show were: Columbia professor Tanya Domi, ACT UP's Ron Goldberg, author Andrew Tobias, and New-York Historical Society curators Rebecca Klassen and Rachel Corbman.

With the 2018 midterms in the books, Seth Richardson and Andrew Tobias look forward to the 2020 election, and size up Ohio's possible presidential contenders. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Leif is an anesthesiologist on FIRE (financially independent / retired early) who's found a passion for personal finance and blogging.   Listen to Ep39 as Leif describes how he first discovered the FIRE concept and at age 39 realized he had attained financial independence. Now at 42, discovering his new writing skills, Leif is transitioning from his medical career to spend time traveling with his family and sharing his passion for FIRE with other medical professionals through his blog Physician on FIRE. https://www.physicianonfire.com/ @physicianonfire twitter https://andrewtobias.com/books/ https://www.bogleheads.org/ https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ https://www.theminimalists.com/ https://www.breakthetwitch.com/ 04:10s An anesthesiologist on FIRE (financially independent / retired early) 05:54s Discovering the FIRE concept through Mr. Money Mustach article 06:50s Realizing you are financially independent at 42 years old 08:32s Overcoming skepticism about “retiring early” 11:57s Do it yourself investing, self-educating on personal finance with Andrew Tobias 16:05s Thinking harder about walking away from your main career, identity issue 20:08s Taking the leap of faith in walking away without having ability to return to career 25:02s Starting the Physician on FIRE without any blogging experience 29:10s Discovering how to break the twitch at CampFI 31:50s Keeping an open mind and maintaining flexible future plans 34:45s Appreciating you may have different skills that were previously untried or undeveloped “There’s a bit of a leap of faith walking away …what would happen after 3 months or 6 months, I guess I don’t know yet” “Just roll with the punches I guess, or be the one throwing them” Enjoy this episode? Share it with friends! Click Subscribe in iTunes!

Episode Notes In the first mini-episode of the season, cleveland.com politics reporters Seth Richardson and Andrew Tobias break down the races in Ohio for Senate and governor. Plus, a discussion on Richard Cordray's hoop skills. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ep 18: Questioning God and letting God be - with Andrew Tobias by Abnormal Tribe Podcast

Cleveland.com reporters Jackie Borchardt, Seth Richardson and Andrew Tobias, and Capitol Letter reporter Jeremy Pelzer discuss Cliff Rosenberger's swift and shocking resignation as speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In Episode 92, we welcome investor, author, and activist, Andrew Tobias. Meb starts by asking Andy about his background and introduction to investing. Andy gives us his origin story, with highlights including collecting stamps, an early introduction to the stock market, a trip behind the Iron Curtain which led to a brief dalliance with Communism, then his becoming a paper millionaire due to some creative accounting (then those monies disappearing). It’s a fascinating look back. Next, Meb recalls a survey we conducted some quarters ago, soliciting readers’ favorite investing books of all time. Andy’s book from 1978, The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need, turned out to be high on that list. Meb asks Andy to explain the thesis of the original book, and whether there have been any significant changes in subsequent editions. Andy tells us “There are just a few things you really need to know about investing, and they don’t ever change. The problem is it’s hard to get people to really grab onto them.” He goes on to say that investing isn’t like cooking or chess, where the more you read/learn, the better. Instead, with investing, the more you read, the more you can get yourself into trouble. He gives us an example using commodity speculating. Given that so much about investing remains constant, Andy’s revisions in subsequent editions haven’t been too substantial. Meb pushes a bit more, asking if there’s any subject about which Andy has changed his mind since the original publication. Andy tells us he’s become a bigger fan of special opportunity investing. Most people aren’t looking for this type of thing. So, Andy discusses putting 80% of your portfolio into inexpensive index funds, but spreading the remaining 20% over 5-6 really interesting, exciting speculations. Most will go to $0, but maybe you hit with one or two, and those proceeds offset the losses and more. Plus, this satisfies the need to have something more exciting to do with your money. Meb agrees with this idea, and asks about Andy’s speculative process – is it rooted in quant or is there a discretionary component? Andy answers by giving us an example with Support.com. Next, the guys discuss valuations, comparing where we are now to where we were back in the early ‘80s. It seems we’re flip-flopped a bit in terms of interest rates and equity valuations. This segues into private investing, with Andy telling us about how came to own farmland. Turned out to be a great investment, buying at $500 an acre and selling years later at $3K an acre. Meb agrees farmland is a great asset class, but it’s hard to allocate toward. This dovetails into a few other private investments in which Andy has participated, most notably “Honest Tea,” which was purchased by Coca Cola, as well as a small, musical comedy, which went on to play on multiple continents over many years. The guys bounce around a bit here, discussing the need to spread your bets in private market investing… lockups… the benefit of illiquidity… binary thinking… Andy’s firsthand experience with selling way too early… There’s plenty more in this episode, including Andy’s concerns for our existential future, his most memorable trade, and finally, a product he endorses which might help tackle dementia and improve reflexes. Apparently, Tom Brady swears by it. What are the details? Find out in Episode 92.

Episode Notes FiveThirtyEight Senior Politics Reporter Clare Malone, a Shaker Heights native, joins cleveland.com politics reporters Andrew Tobias, Mary Kilpatrick and Seth Richardson on the second episode of Ohio Matters to talk about the current landscape. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode Notes In the inaugural podcast, cleveland.com political reporters Mary Kilpatrick, Andrew Tobias and Seth Richardson sit down with former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, interviews Andrew Tobias, author of, "The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need,” on "A Closer Look With Arthur Levitt." u0010u0010To contact the producer and editor: Michael Lysak +1-212-617-5560 or acloserlook@bloomberg.net

Title:  Understanding Hidden Risks in Insurance Companies and Impact on BOLI Asset. Prepare yourself for your bank owned life insurance (BOLI) annual review with a better understanding of insurance company "General Account" portfolio hidden risks.  Attendee and Guest: Kelly Coughlin, CEO, BankBosun; David Merkel, CEO, Aleph Investments, CFA and Actuary                                        Date:         July 10, 2017 There are only two things as complicated as insurance accounting. And I have no idea what they are. Andrew Tobias, The Invisible Bankers Intro: Kelly Coughlin is a CPA and CEO of BankBosun, a management consulting firm helping bank C Level Officers navigate risk and discover reward. He is the host of the syndicated audio podcast, BankBosun.com. Kelly brings over 25 years of experience with companies like PWC, Lloyds Bank, and Merrill Lynch. On the podcast Kelly interviews key executives in the banking ecosystem to provide bank C suite officers, risk management, technology, and investment ideas and solutions to help them navigate risks and discover rewards. And now your host, Kelly Coughlin. Kelly: Greetings, this is Kelly Coughlin, CPA, CEO and program host of BankBosun, helping C-Suite executives manage risk and discover reward in a sea of threats and opportunities.  One of the classic risk management strategies is to use insurance to manage the risk of loss in many assets, whether it be a home, a car, a health, life, a revenue stream, a cyber hack, offloading the risk through a third party who assumes that risk and pay a fee, a premium, to do that has been employed for hundreds of years.  The first case of life insurance actually began in Philadelphia, providing a death benefit to the surviving widows of poor Presbyterian ministers in the 18th century.  Today, life insurance is utilized by banks to manage the loss of key management, and as an alternative asset class to municipal bonds and mortgage backed securities.  It’s called Bank-Owned Life Insurance or BOLI and it’s used by over 3600 banks that hold over $160 billion in assets.   As part of their annual report to the Board, and frequently regulators, the consultant involved in placing the BOLI asset with the bank with all the financial update on the insurance company or companies that hold the asset.  And to get a famous plug but a fully disclosed plug I do independent   consulting work with Equias Alliance, one of the best in the business for placing and monitoring the BOLI market.  Most of the BOLI assets are placed in the general account portfolio of the bank which means the bank’s assets are held on the balance sheet of the insurance company, somewhat like a loan to the insurance company.  And like any loan to a company, you want to look at the ability of the borrower to pay it back along with the expected interests.  So one of the things we do is look at the value of the insurance company.  We frequently look to third party rating agencies to provide some sort of analyses on this, but I thought it would be interesting to have someone that has actually done this work as part of their career. David Merkel, CEO and CFA of Aleph Investments who has a BA and a MA in political economy from the prestigious Johns Hopkins University, was a senior analyst with Hovde Capital, a hedge fund, and he was chief economist and director of research for Finacorp.  And David is an inactive fellow in the society of Actuaries.  I have David on the phone, who is going to talk to us about valuation of life insurance companies. Kelly:                            David, are you on the line there? David:                           I am here, okay. Kelly:                            Thank you for joining us. David:                           Happy to join you. Kelly:                           Give us a little bit of personal background. David:                           Okay, I’m based in Ellicott City, Maryland, which is just outside Baltimore.  My wife and I decided to try for something big and we were able to have three children and we adopted five more.  The kids have a lot of fun, in my opinion.  It has had its challenges, it has had its successes and failures but in general I loved doing it. Kelly:                            Great, congratulations on that.  Life insurance companies, at their core, are basically investment companies.   Is that a fair statement? David:                           Yes, and that’s become more true as the years have gone along.  When I was a young actuary, the society of actuaries syllabus tended to work on a level saying, analyze the policies that you write. And they gave us all sorts of ways to do that, but they didn’t talk much about investments.  But the company I worked for, initially, Pacific Standard, which was the largest consultancy of the 1980s.  And since you have never heard of Pacific Standards, you know that the 1980s were pretty kind to life insurers that grew up a part of Junk bonds of Michael Milken. The game changed and since that time virtually every insurance company that has failed has failed because of their asset policy.  I think there has been a grand total of one that has failed for other reasons, and make that two, AIG and its derivative counter parties, that was another thing.  But a lot of the failures there was apt an investing policy too.   I actually wrote a paper that was picked up by the special inspector general, the TARP on AIG to point out the aspects of the failure that was due to the securities lending agreements inside the life insurance companies.   I spoke?? to Wall Street Journal and the New York Times and it had actually even got read by Warren Buffet who supposedly thought it was a good paper. But assets are the main factor of what makes insurance companies fail, that’s the long and short of it.  That is why we should analyze it more. Kelly:                            It seems to me, insurance companies are more like mutual funds so I would kind of like to start with that as kind of the baseline. Other than not being a completely separate legal entity, which a mutual fund is, how does a general asset portfolio resemble or differ from a mutual fund other than the fact that an insurance company has a mortality risk expense that’s kind of built into that?  If you take the mortality risk expense out of there, doesn’t it resemble a mutual fund in that sense? David:                           The main difference between a mutual fund and an insurance company in the way that you invest with them, because I have invested for both of them, is that with a mutual fund, you don’t have a balance sheet.  Your mutual fund holders can come and go as they please and everything is valued at par.  With a life insurance company, you have liabilities that are relatively sticky, at least many of them are sticky.   And one of the key aspects of trying to ascertain the riskiness of a life insurance company is in understanding how much of the portfolio of liabilities can run, i.e. there is no surrender charge, and there aren’t that many consequences for leaving and measure that against how much do you have in assets that can be rapidly liquidated.   Because, again, it is risk based liquidity that is really the thing that you try to look at, in terms of the asset portfolio, to understand what is the true risk of a run on the company, and it does vary from company to company. Kelly:                            And we’re talking about bank owned life insurance general asset portfolios, what are the types of liabilities that should cause concern, or at least tension, of a banker who is holding a GA portfolio. David:                           Yeah, there are some liabilities that life insurers write that are not under-writable.  In some cases, the insured knows more than the insurance company.  The best recent example of that is long term care, in the sense that long term care policies have consistently lost money for insurance companies.  And so you have to be weary of a company that writes too much long term care. I mean, generally if even as one of the bigger writers has gotten out of it that life is left writing business, that’s been one really ugly liability. Kelly:                            Where can they find that on the balance sheet? David:                           You would have to actually begin looking at the statutory statements to find out how much is long term care. Kelly:                            There has got to be an asset and a corresponding liability related to that, correct? David:                           It’s going to be, I guess, it’s another thing that’s written in the General Account.  I know that the rating agencies will write up and describe how much of the business that a company has would be in long term care, if it is a material amount.  Things that are a little more fuzzy these days though are the things where we don’t have either good ways of hedging or good ways of actuarially coming up with reserves.  And those things are things like Universal Life, Secondary Guarantees, Term Life policies that are ultra long, that might go over the whole of someone’s life, that end up being lapse supported, and the reserving for those just does not work.  We don’t have good models for that. Kelly:                            Now, you are listing out the liabilities that should get attention, right, long term care, universal life with secondary guarantees? David:                          I should mention that variable life and annuities that have secondary guarantees as well because there is no good way to hedge those and if there is no good way to hedge them there is no good way to price them either. There is no good actuarial basis that you can say, this is what it is worth and this is how we can invest to make sure that we are always going to have enough to pay our claims. That is probably the biggest single thing in the life insurance industry today.   If it stays small, I guess you don’t have to worry much but if it becomes a really big part of an insurance company, the secondary guarantees, then you have to begin to ask questions. And there are examples of companies that when they realize that they sold the secondary guarantee on an annuity, just as an example, a variable annuity, where it has some sort of income benefit, accumulation benefit, death benefit or withdrawal benefit.  When Cigna was originally writing the reinsurance for all the people who were doing the guaranteed minimum death benefits in the 90s, Cigna eventually ended up taking something like a $4 billion dollar hit because they did not understand what they were doing and how open ended the claims would be.  With the Hartford, they were one of the biggest writers of these guarantees and had to scale it back dramatically.  They were going to people to buy out the liabilities because as they began to try to estimate what they might be worth because there is no actual way to truly know what they are worth.  They were paying 110, 120, and in some cases 130 percent of the contract value to get out.  And what I told the people who approach me, I said, the odds are, they are only giving you about half the premium you deserve.  And so long term guarantees that involve investment risks mixed with other actuarial risks like debt or longevity are impossible to price.  There is no good mathematical way to do it and all the reserving methods that are done on a statutory or a GAAP basis are inadequate.  This is not a happy thing to think about but...so what I say to people, after I say this, is just make sure it’s not a large part of the General Account of the company. Kelly:                           What’s a large part, 10 percent? David:                           I would simply say, make sure that your company is below average with respect to it, versus the whole industry, because you don’t want to be in one of the companies, that is one of the early ones to blow up on something like those. Kelly:                            Do you have any bench mark numbers on those three categories combined or separately what a kind of average is? David:                           And one thing you have to realize, one of the secondary guarantees is that the actual contract value of the accumulated value of the variable life and variable annuities and variable universal life is in the Separate Account, however, all the secondary guarantees are in the General Account.  This is one case where you have to really consider that the Separate Account do have an impact on the General Account, the degree that they have written business that has secondary guarantees.  Those are the types of liabilities that make me suspicious of a company but until the stock market falls hard most of these aren’t going to have any punch but if it’s down 40 or 50 percent and it stays there for a while, like after the great depression, you will once again find that the life insurance companies will have harder times.  The ones that were launching variable business with the secondary guarantees.  That’s the biggest one, and maybe other secondary guarantees, the little interest rate guarantees, are relatively small.  The ones with the equity components are the big ones.  For the most part, if you get away from those, the ordinary life insurance and annuities that are written by insurance companies are easy liabilities to hedge and value.  That should be 80 to 90 percent of the total liabilities of the General Account.  But again, it’s a good question to ask and see who your consultants are.    Kelly:                            In your mind, how did we go about determining whether a life insurance management team is (a) competent and (b) conservative? David:                          Okay, well starting with competent, the main thing is that they try to manage risk on the front end.  And the example that I give is, some companies that write disability business will do significant underwriting on the front end before they write a policy but will not for every claim.  But then the others who will write every policy and then basically force people, sue them to get the payment. But the good companies that are competent do the risk management on the front end.  And that applies to every aspect of writing a policy, whether it’s their investment policy, all the things that go into that.  They are careful in choosing the lines of business that they go into.  They are disciplined when it comes to doing mergers and acquisitions.  The really good companies will do small acquisitions and they will do it to gain competencies, synergies, new markets of distribution methods rather than doing big scale acquisitions.  Large scale acquisitions have a large probability of failure and tend to be far more expensive than you might think when it comes to the total integration of it.  Competent managements tend to be good in using their excess capital whether it’s returning it to shareholders in a flow and disciplined way through dividends and buy-backs or to mutual policy holders through the dividend scale.  Because, again, these places don’t just exist for themselves, they do have clients that they have to satisfy who are owners, whether mutual or stock.  They will be careful in the way that they do send money back and how they use free cash for growth.  Now, as for conservatives, here are a couple things that I think about.  They put profits ahead of growth and they are willing to grow more slowly when conditions are bad.  They will try to grow free surplus so that they have more options in front of them rather than all those who consume their free surplus and be running as tightly as they can against the risk based capital levels.  Conservative management, when you hear that they have adjustments they tend to be positive non-recurring adjustments.  They tend to be disciplined in reserving and in their credit analyses.  The Companies that are taking a lot of risk in their assets are the ones that are always constraining that liquidity during their phase of the cycle.  One other thing about the conservative management team is that even during the bull phase of the cycle they tend to grow a little slower than other companies.  They pick their response and they are looking for profitable growth ahead of just growing to gain market share.  They are not controlled by their marketers, they are controlled by businessmen Kelly:                            What types of investments do these insurance portfolio managers invest in that are different from, say, a fixed income mutual fund?  Do they tend to buy a lot of private securities, is that it? Is that accurate? David:                           They do have more private securities.  And private securities are not necessarily worst and often they’ll have better covenant of protection.  It depends what they want to do. So, for example, some will have their own mortgage origination arms.  Some will engage in doing credit tenant leases.  Those aren’t bad asset classes and those can be done quite conservatively.  It’s a question of what your stress on credit quality is. One of the questions that I pose is, where do they look for returns greater than triple B corporate bonds?  You take a look at a life insurance company’s portfolio, most of its public corporate and public mortgage backed and things like that, and that’s enough to get you to a certain level then maybe the last 10 percent of the portfolio has to be invest in somewhere.  And there might be common stocks, and a lot of it will be in junk bonds, depending upon the company, and some will originate their own assets.  The most traditional one is commercial mortgages; do you have a good credit discipline or not?   And that, at least, you can track overtime because your mortgage losses are disclosed in the statutory statements of the life insurance company.  Those are tracked pretty carefully, ever since the mortgage defaults of the 1990s.  The question I would pose is, every company tries to earn above average returns at some point, where are they doing it and why do they think they have expertise there?  Since the insurance industry actually came through the crises better than the banks you might want to ask how did they do   1999 -2003.  That was a much worst period. Kelly:                            Do insurance companies tend to lump all of their general asset portfolios into one consolidated portfolio or do they segregate it by the underlying product type that brought in the assets? David:                           Okay, we typically notionally do that.  It will be one big account, as far as the investment department will be doing to manage, however, the actuaries will come along and say, “These assets provide the income for this segment of liabilities.  These assets provide the assets for this segment of liabilities.” And then they will try to match and then they will go back to the investment department and say, Okay, here is what we need for each individual line of business and here is what we have.  Here are the tweaks we need in order to have something that’s good for the company as a whole in order to match up against our models for what assets are needed for each liability stream. Kelly:                            If one of those, let’s just call them products, sub accounts, over-performed, let’s say the BOLI over-performed and then the universal life secured guaranteed underperformed, will they transfer some returns from the BOLI over to the universal life to lend them, so consequently, BOLI gives up its extra juice it got, how would that work? David:                          As I said, the segments are notional, they are just one big general account and it’s the way that the actuaries then try to figure out, what is the true profitability of each line.  It is something that is an internal calculation but the credit results are going to be spread across that general account portfolio.  They will probably have the same credit quality across each of the segments but what vary is what the length of the assets purchased for each notional segment. Kelly:                            The other long-term risk that one needs to think about? David:                           These long-term risks that is not getting talked about enough is what happens if interest rates stay low.  Because what’s happening at many insurance companies is that they bought long bonds and they thought it would be good enough to hedge all that they were doing.  Many of the annuities that they wrote in the 1980s, ‘90s, maybe even into the early 2000s, they carried long term guarantees that were sometimes as high as 6 percent per year forever.  To have a stream like that for the remaining amount of annuities or life insurance is pretty considerable down at those guarantee rates and right now long bonds, long corporates, it’s pretty difficult on a conservative portfolio when you strip off the expenses for a life insurance company to have with things that can meet those long term guarantees.  And it gets a little worst every year as bonds mature on the life insurance portfolios.  That’s the biggest challenge that virtually every life insurance companies are going through right now.  Because if you look at the expected flow of liability cash flows versus the expectable on asset cash flows, even if you have the rough interest rate sensitivity of the match, you are going to have more liability flows then more asset flows and then more liability flows. As these portfolios age, the real risks come if interest rates stay low.  The optimal scenario for life insurers, that should it ever happen, is that interest rates rise slowly.    If interest rates rise slowly, life insurers do wonderfully.  That would be the ideal scenario for virtually every life insurer.  When they do their interest rate test for their asset level liability management, typically these days, the worst scenario is, interest rates drop and stay down.  And the best one is, interest rates slowly rise. Kelly:                            Any quick dirty simple mathematic measures one can look at to determine long term credit quality of a life insurance company? David:                           Yeah, one thing, not mathematical, just to start is that mutual companies tend to think longer term and tend not to make the best of what that company make.  They tend to be better off through really long-term obligations, but do they maintain a high ratio of surplus to risk based capital?  Now if you are looking for where you can find that, if you look in the blue book, that is the annual statement from the statutory statements of the life insurance companies.  Those are published on the five-year historical pages.   Aside from that there is no place publicly that they are published, unless you go to the rating agencies.  Now, rating agencies aren’t horrible, in fact, they are usually quite good.  They failed in the early 1990s regarding guaranteed investment contracts.  When the rating agencies tend to fail over time is when they deal with new things.  Once something has been through a failure cycle the rating agencies are pretty good at analyzing.  So, when you think of them on corporate credit they are usually pretty good but they were horrible though with structured corporate credit because they have never been through that. So when the financial crises they got floored.  Other things to look for, look for a slow rate of growth over time.  You don’t want them shrinking.  You don’t want them staying flat but you don’t want them running really quickly.  Conservative management teams grow slowly and they are happy enough with it and they try to get more profitability out of what they are doing.  Also, see if they lose money more rarely on a GAAP basis, they should make money in bad times.  That’s the sign of a conservative management team.   And if they have surprises they should be positive ones.  You want to see that they are better than their competitors. Over time, because conditions change I don’t give an absolute set of numbers for this, but you want them to be better than the average of their industry in these areas.  But the one thing that I learned as an actuary who had to be at both ends for credit analyst and a portfolio manager for equities where I was analyzing insurance companies, it was that the most important things though, aside from a few basic mathematical calculations, is to try to understand the management team.  And again, are they conservative, are they competent?  That would take you a lot further, particularly for long run judgments.   And since you are thinking long run and since we are talking life policies, you should ask whether they have a culture that will maintain itself after the existing management team.  Do they tend to reproduce managers that continue to be competent and conservative?  I think often that the mutual companies tend to be better at that because they have no one else to report to.  They don’t have to put out quarterly earnings, except to the state regulators.  And the companies that blew up, often life insurance companies often last 30-40 years, were the rapid growers.  They had aggressive management teams, I worked for such companies, AIG was one of those.  Always grow grow grow and take chances to do it, you know, you would never hear about the little dirty secrets inside most companies like AIG, just as an example, but in the early 90s my boss and I found five reserving errors that were greater than $100M each, and one was a billion, and these never came through the gap statements because AIG found a way to basically find sufficiency in their assets to cover it over.  In general, the companies that are better managed tend to be moderate growers.  They are trying to grow but they are not trying to grow faster than anyone else.     Kelly:                            You mentioned leverage, talk about that. David:                          This comes in two forms.  The more common form is if you are a stock company you are borrowing money at your holding company.  The more that a company borrows at its holding company level, in general, the more aggressive they are going to be as a management team.  The lesser way is if you are writing guaranteed investment contracts and other types of short term business.  To the degree that you are doing that, that’s a form of leverage because that means that you are...and especially if you are writing anything like a floating rate contract that can be terminated within, say, seven days, those are the sort of things that if they get written you have to be really good at managing your liquidity as a company because you have big payouts that are happening in the short run.  With most other life insurance or annuity portfolio that doesn’t happen. Kelly:                            Great.  The underwriting process, you distinguish between initial front end, heavy duty, due diligence and acceptance versus accept anybody but then be real tight with the payouts, how can one distinguish between those two? David:                           Basically, it’s by reputation or you can...if you are looking for something that’s actual data, in the annual statement of every life insurance company there is a schedule as per denied claims.   A good company has relatively few denied claims. It is the companies that have pages and pages of denied claims that you have to go, “what are these guys doing?” Kelly:                            Right.  Well, David that’s all I have.  I appreciate your time, and do you have one of your favorite quotes that you operate by, your business life or personal life? David:                           Here we go. Kelly:                            Say it slowly. David:                          It is appointed to men once to die and after that the judgment, so live your life in the sight of God and not because men are looking over your shoulder. Kelly:                            Oh, very good that’s a nice one.   David, that’s perfect, thank you very much for your time. Outro: We want to thank you for listening to the syndicated audio program, BankBosun.com The audio content is produced by Kelly Coughlin, Chief Executive Officer of BankBosun, LLC; and syndicated by Seth Greene, Market Domination LLC, with the help of Kevin Boyle. Video content is produced by The Guildmaster Studio, Keenan Bobson Boyle. The voice introduction is me, Karim Kronfli. The program is hosted by Kelly Coughlin. If you like this program, please tell us. If you don’t, please tell us how we can improve it. Now, some disclaimers. Kelly is licensed with the Minnesota State Board of Accountancy as a Certified Public Accountant. The views expressed here are solely those of Kelly Coughlin and his guests in their private capacity and do not in any other way represent the views of any other agent, principal, employer, employee, vendor or supplier.

Donovan, Stephen, Andrew Tobias, and Wrion Bowling gather around our hearts and hearths to talk Die Harder.